By Kyle Taylor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Heading into their first round matchup with No. 1 seed Mountain State (W.Va.) Bacone coach Alan Foster knew that in order to pull off the upset his squad would have to be firing on all cylinders.
That did not come to fruition and in the end the Cougars ended Bacone’s 12-game winning streak with a 105-78 victory in the first round of the NAIA Division I tournament in Kansas City, Missouri Wednesday.
Early on, Bacone (19-13) wasn’t backing down from Mountain State (27-2) but the Warriors had a cold spell which prompted the Cougars to lead 30-20 with 6:57 to go in the first half.
Bacone would eventually trail by as many as 15 points, but didn’t relent and cut the margin to 45-37 with 45 seconds left in the half. The Cougars scored five quick points to end the half and take a 13-point advantage into the half.
In the first half, the Warriors hit 42 percent (16 for 38) of their shots but only 4-of-16 attempts from 3-point range. In comparison, Mountain hit half of their shots (19-of-38) while making 3-of-8 from 3-point range.
“We stayed right there within striking distance,” Foster said. “We had a chance to come into halftime with 10 or single digits, but we turn it over and they make a three. It was typical of the way a lot of things went. We had to play perfect in order to have an opportunity to win and we did not play perfect.”
The Cougars began to heat up offensively in the second half as they increased their lead to 78-58 with less than 11 minutes to go and the Warriors looked to be out of hope.
Bacone made a run and cut the 20-point deficit to 13, 80-67, with 8:18 left but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way.
A key area that Foster emphasized in practice would be the rebounding battle. Mountain State outrebounded Bacone 53-32 in the contest.
“We talked about it, worked on it but it’s different out there when they just keep bringing big bodies at you,” the Warrior coach said. “Even though we didn’t shoot it very well, if we could have kept them off the glass I think it would’ve been a close ball game.”
Senior forward Ronnie Battle, who scored a game high 24 points for Bacone, echoed the same sentiments as his coach.
“We weren’t rebounding, boxing out, doing the little things that they were doing,” he said. “That’s why they came out on top. We just weren’t doing it right.”
Overall, Bacone hit 40 percent (31-of-77) of their shots against the Cougars, including 7-of-30 3s. The Cougars were well balanced in both halves shooting exactly 50 percent for the game while converting on 25-of-28 free throw attempts.
Despite the first round loss, the Warriors will return three of their starting five and could potentially have a fourth back if Battle is granted a fifth year of eligibility.
“I do not plan on this being our last trip to Kansas City,” Foster said. “We’re still filling out paper work to get his (Battle) year of eligibility back. We’ll know probably towards the end of the school year or summertime.”
Chad Tyler scored 22 points for Bacone and Dallas Juneil dropped in nine. Nick Aldridge led the Cougars with 32 and 11. Marcus Hunter also added 16.
